Exotic and Historic Travel

Location
Western South America.
Time Zone
GMT – 5.
Surface
1,285,216 km ².
Population
27.15 million (estimate 2004).
Population Density
21.1 inhabitants per km ².
Capital
Lima. Population: 8,270,000 inhabitants (2004).
Geography
Peru is a large country located on the mountainous Pacific coast of South America. It has borders with Ecuador and Colombia to the north, Brazil and Bolivia to the east and Chile to the south. The boundary to the west is the Pacific Ocean. There are three natural zones: the coast, the Sierra and the Amazon rainforest. The Coast region, where is located the capital Lima, is a narrow coastal plain crossed by mostly desert and fertile valleys. Here are the agricultural plantations of cotton, sugar and rice, as well as most of the country’s oil fields. La Sierra, part of the Andes, has some peaks above 6,000 meters. In this area are the country’s mineral resources of silver, zinc, lead, copper and gold as well as most of its livestock. La Selva is a highland area very fertile, subtropical. The Amazon forest is located in the eastern part of Peru has vast natural resources. However the lack of communication and transportation infrastructure that this region did not exploited until the seventies. In 1973 the extraction of oil began a large scale. Peru’s population is a mix of Indians, mestizos and descendants of Spanish colonists, in addition, there are communities of Chinese and African origin. Read the rest of this entry »